After years of fighting to remain in the U.S., Newton resident Rigoberto Mendez was due to be deported to Guatemala Friday morning, Julie Cohen of the TAB reports.
Mendez said it’s the family’s plan that his 18-year-old son Roberto Felipe Lopez remain at UMass-Boston where he’s studying accounting on a full scholarship. However, since Mendez is the breadwinner he added, “But who knows for how long?”
His wife Imelda Felipe Lopez, also an undocumented immigrant, is being treated for brain cancer and cannot work.
“It’s not going to be easy. Who’s going to pay the bills,” he asked.
His 10-year-old son Max Felipe Lopez, a fourth-grader at Horace Mann Elementary School, has been crying nonstop since the family received the news. Mendez said he finally fell asleep in his arms on Thursday.
This is heartbreaking and outrageous.
It’s also a reminder of how misplaced our political energies are at this moment in this city. While Newton residents will spend the next two months campaigning, raising money and debating whether or not a legally-allowed, voter-endorsed, class of business should be allowed to operate in our city, the fate of our union, the Mendez family and thousands of families like theirs will be decided on Nov. 6 in elections across America.
Wherever one stands on immigration, there needs to be room for compassionate exceptions. No one should be deported while their spouse is being treated for cancer and they are the sole support of minor children, especially when the children are citizens.
Is there a place where we can donate to help the family with expenses?
ICE, you are complete sleazeballs.
There’s a GoFundMe for the family here, I urge you to to give whatever you can, I can’t even fathom how challenging these times must be for them.
https://www.gofundme.com/keep-this-great-family-together
Over the past 2 decades I have met many physicians born out side
the U S A. They are not permanent citizens. All must adhere to rigorous immigration laws to obtain/renew their visas.
This means remaining outside the country for 2 weeks while they renew visas.
What can we say to them? Ignore the law stay here illegally?
I feel sad for those illegal immigrants who must return to poorer countries. I do not know the solution. I am a legal immigrant myself since 1992. It would be so wonderful to say to anyone in Canada come to America there are no entry rules. A huge number would cross the border ASAP.
Power in numbers. I wonder what would happen if 100 people got up and surrounded the Mendez home and refused to let ICE near them… Worth a shot? I’m game.
It may feel good to try and help this family but this same story is being played out 1000 times over each month in Massachusetts.
Any effory should be focused on changing the policy either relaxing enforcement of deportation or creating a larger worker visa program so fewer people need to come illegally.
There are at least a billion people in India and Asia who would give anything to live in USA. Obviously, we cannot accept everyone so we need a coherant immigration policy with some kind of enforcement. What we have now is broken which leads to these terrible situations we see here
Thank you, Greg. An important reminder about priorities.
Have our City Council or Mayor done anything to try to help?
This is sad and infuriating. What happened to “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”?
On the other hand, there IS something you can do about it. There are many great ways to get involved in Newton to elect a Congress that will say no to these policies. For example, you can do postcards, calls, textbanking, etc. through Rise Up MA (http://riseupma.org/).
I’m only aware of one legal avenue to bring in unrelated people from other countries:
Newton residents can adopt a child, say 13 years old and within 5 years they will become a citizen. They can then apply for a greencard for their birth parents which will be approved within a year. … a suggestion for those who want to help now
Kinda weird… we are all of us (myself included) so urgent to render aid and assistance to those in Andover and Lawrence following the natural gas disaster in those communities…
…but a family getting ripped apart – for absolutely no good reason other than, “welp, it’s da law – an we gotta follow da law!!”?
nah… we* seem not as interested in helping.
We should perhaps be introspective regarding this observation.
* Implied ‘big W’ ‘we.’ All the comments here are completely supportive of our neighbor and community member.
I chuckle at how many people assume that their ancestors had to wait their turn to come into America and that everyone who wants to come in now should do the same. The clear inference is that family members who immigrated here had to submit detailed background information and wait in some kind of line for years before being allowed in. The fact of the matter is that immigrants coming to these shores before 1920 were processed quickly with little or no paperwork. My Uncle Neil told me that my grandfather stepped off the boat from Ireland in the 1890s and the only people there to meet him were his brother and a member of the local Democratic Party machine who told him he was a citizen and signed him up to vote. A few years later they started voting out the old Yankee Republicans and not too long after that the Irish dominated the city politically.
bob,
If would like to go back to 1920’s policy then say hello to 1 billion new residents within 5 years.
I think that Bob’s point is that many people assumed that their relatives from the past came with documentation, when that’s not the case at all. My grandmother decided to change her last name upon arrival in the U.S. Something tells me that she didn’t have documentation.
Would like to propose a solution: manufacturing/farm jobs
Incentivize companies to build manufacturing in USA, agree on initial 10% allocation for visa workers with existing illegal immigrants given first dibs. For every job opening which goes unfilled for 9 months by an American, a visa is issued to any qualified person… allow allocation to 30% of the workforce…
We know there simply isn’t enough Americans if for example Apple built iphones in USA, or other manufacturing products. With enough job creation, we could turn a lot of existing illegal immigrants into legal working visas which can be turned in to a green card.
Apple have 250BILLION to being back to USA, they could do it if they want…
If you’re white coming in it’s no problem. Just look at Melania & her parents, or trump saying we need more Norwegians.
Let’s be honest. This is about keeping/kicking Brown & black people out.
Absolutely what Nathan said. I have family members who were white refugees and some came here illegally but now the adult children of those immigrants are repeating Trump rhetoric on immigration. The only difference between their parents and current immigrants is skin color.
Mmqc
Why dont test your theory. Report your white illegal family members. If they don’t get deported then yes, you guys are right..
They came 50 years ago. Most of them are dead and it’s their 60-something year old children who are now anti-immigrant Trump supporters.
We either come up with a better way to monitor who lives here (which many would not want because it would involve a system which would require a person to register when they move, like in Switzerland for instance), institute high fines for people who employ someone without proper documentation, or we have to accept that people will come in and settle here without a process.
There is also an incredible amount of double standard here. We all want to pay as little for our picked fruit, landscaping, home cleaning etc. and nobody really inquires about legal status. The only way illegal immigrants can live her and work is if citizens employ them. They do so for a reason.
In any case it is inhuman and unacceptable to deport someone who has made this country his or her home for decades. Either catch people soon, or accept that they have become common law Americans.
Recalling this comment & several like it mocking Newton’s proposed Sanctuary City status. At that time ICE was rounding up Brown people a world away, in East Boston.
Read more: City Dems call on Newton to become a sanctuary city | Village 14 https://village14.com/2016/12/02/city-dems-call-on-newton-to-become-a-sanctuary-city/#ixzz5RDKlQMjj
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This really is a horrible situation with no solution that everyone will like, but the Mendez’s deserve to stay. What can we do to help out?? Talk is talk, what do we do to act??
He should be living here, and ICE should be abolished. It was instituted by George W. Bush and has only been around for 18 years! The USA does not need brownshirts, and we should not have fascist policies!
Does anyone know what actually happened?? I can’t find anything online.
I organized a letter of support from several City Councilors to ICE calling for them to allow Mr. Mendez to stay in the U.S. I know that our US Senators were working on his behalf as well. It is a terrible injustice that he was sent away from his wife and sons. A committee is being formed within the Horace Mann School community to support the family now, and I will share more information as I have it.
@Emily – are the boys and the mom still in Newton? Can we cook meals for them? Is there a roster one can sign up?
I also heard that someone in Newton is responsible for calling ICE on the family. Is this true?
How about a bipartisan bill to allow an existing family to stay if they can find a financial sponsor?
The sponsor would be responsible for all medical, college, housing costs, it would be zero burden on the government.
If sponsored, they would be given a work permit and it would be up to them to get the education/skills they need to find work to eventually support themselves. The sponsor would continue to cover any expenses shortfall..
Similar to the H1-B visa, H1-B holders must continue to be employed or they have to leave the country.
Technically, 1 billionaire could sponsor 1 million people
sorry, 1 billionaire could only sponsor 1000 people, but communities could pool their money together for induvial families. Unfortunately, each person in the pool would assume total responsibly if people drop out
Patricia – I will get back to you asap re how you can help. Re that rumor, I don’t believe that is accurate. Mr. Mendez was checking in regularly with ICE as he was supposed to, but the Boston director changed and the new person in charge is using her discretion much more harshly.
I feel deeply for the Mendez family and hope those with influence can put a halt to this deportation. I’d still like to know if there is anything I, or other Newton residents, can do at this point in the proceedings.
@Bujek. All my ancestors who came to Boston (either legally or illegally) passed on to their eternal reward many decades ago. I think it would be quite difficult to exhume their remains under any circumstance and rather doubt that Trump and his gang would care to do so because they were, after all, mainstream Caucasians. Not Norwegian, mind you, which seems to be Trump’s admitted first choice for his type of immigrant pool; but the Irish are likely close enough to make the cut. This would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so tragic and unnecessary.
@ Bob Burke – He was forced to leave on Friday.
The Mendez family LOST their husband/father and main provider. I have no idea what that means for the family in terms of their home, or for the mother’s health insurance (which I assume she had through her husband?) since she is in the middle of cancer treatments.
So all we can do at this point is to make sure that the family can survive and the older child can go to college on his scholarship.
My grandfather on my dad’s side assimilated quickly to this country. He never looked back. Not so with my grandfather on my mom’s side. He was a pure rebel who longed to return to a free Ireland; but he died in an industrial accident before he could do so. My Uncle Neil told me on several occasions that “granddad” stored hundreds of rifles and other military equipment in the cellar of the family home in the South End for surreptitious shipment to Ireland. I’d like to think they were shipped in time for the 1916 uprising in Dublin, but don’t know if this is really the case.
@Patricia Loewy: Thanks for the sad update.
What about the ACLU??
Their immediate needs are probably financial.
– loss of breadwinner salary. at least 50k a year
– possibly bankruptcy because of insurance loss. medical bills, likely 100k due to high deductibles (non government sponsored insurance)
– college funds for the younger child. 200k
– health insurance costs going forward. 1k a month
so about 250k for their immediate needs?